International Women’s Day Campaigns: 10 Examples to Inspire Your Brand

International Women’s Day Campaigns give brands an opportunity to support women and make a difference. We’ve got tips and examples to inspire you.
Fanbytes | International Women’s Day Campaigns

In 30 seconds:

  • #IWD2022 takes place on 8th March, and it’s a great opportunity for brands to join in the celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.
  • Around the world, organisations will be releasing campaigns that highlight female empowerment, gender equality and women’s rights.
  • Looking for the best campaigns from International Women’s Day brands to inspire you? We’ve collected our favourite examples below.


This year brands need to know how to create honest, authentic international women’s day campaigns. We’re here to help you do that. International Women’s Day 2023 falls on the 8th March – in the second week of “Women’s History Month”; the time of year set aside to honour women’s contributions throughout history. 

Getting involved is a great opportunity for brands to show what they’re doing to promote gender parity and to establish themselves as forces for good amongst their audiences. The celebration of International women’s day is particularly popular among younger audiences, with millennials and Gen Z getting in on the action. These age groups are the most likely to consider themselves feminists, so it’s crucial to include them in your international women’s day campaigns.    

IWD is a good marketing opportunity and an important chance to support young women. Last year’s theme, Break the Bias drummed up a ton of engagement online with 43.9 million views on TikTok and over 471K posts on Instagram. The manifesto for the campaign theme tackled gender bias and asked people to “Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination.” 

So, what is the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day? Answer: #EmbraceEquity. The IWD website states, “A focus on gender equity needs to be part of every society’s DNA”. They have accompanied the theme with a memorable gesture – an “embrace”.

When it comes to putting together an International Women’s Day brand campaign, it’s important for brands to keep in mind this theme and examine how they can embrace equity in their own marketing and beyond.

International Women’s Day brands tips for brand campaigns

Like Black History Month or Pride, IWD is an opportunity for brands to showcase their commitment to Diversity and Inclusion initiatives, to celebrate their colleagues and inspiring women in their field, and to recognise the work that still needs to be done. So how can you do it? Here are some of our top tips.

Tip 1 - Stay positive

IWD is an important topic. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun! Approaching your International Women’s Day campaign with this in mind will allow your brand to stand out from the influx of posts and hashtags on the day – which only means the message will spread even further. Grab your audience’s attention with positive, entertaining content that sways from the norm and you’ll see that ROI shoot up. 

Tip 2 - Use smart hashtags and schedule wisely

If your brand is active on social media, you’ll need to be aware of the larger campaigns happening around you. That’s because women’s day ads will all be launching at the same time, so careful use of overarching hashtags and clever scheduling is important. 

Here are some of the main hashtags to be aware of when posting to social media this international women’s day:

Using these hashtags in your campaigns can help to boost reach – getting more eyes on your content and spreading awareness of your campaign further. It also helps to unify the movement as a whole – something the organisation behind the Day is keen for brands to be involved in.

Always remember to think about your audience first and foremost and how best to get their attention. Use optimised scheduling times to get in front of them and make your content easy to find with a mix of larger and niche hashtags

Tip 3 - Nail your creative direction

Your creativity is crucial to a winning campaign. When focusing on women’s empowerment, campaigns typically fall into one of a few categories: charitable, educational, or purely celebratory. Of course, you can do all of the above! Some of the best International Women’s Day posts combine all of these aspects within their campaigns. 

The categories or creative of your International Women’s day campaign will vary depending on your goal and target audience. The IWD organisers suggest deciding between goals such as “launching initiatives” or “influencing behaviour”. Their example target audiences include “the general public”, “students” and “industry”.

Once you know these two factors, you can use them to inform your strategy and create a kick-ass campaign that speaks up about the day whilst boosting brand awareness. 

International Women’s Day Campaign examples

In the past few years, we’ve seen campaigns that really embrace the spirit of International Women’s Day – and thus garner increased brand sentiment from their followers. Here are our picks of some of the best IWD campaigns.

1. Net-A-Porter

Given that they sell predominantly to women, it comes as no surprise that fashion and beauty brands are active on International Women’s Day. And as one of the biggest luxury fashion and beauty brands, Net-A-Porter is no exception. 

Last year, the fashion and beauty retailer launched Season four of its “Incredible Women” podcast, featuring the stories of women from all over the world. Each video features empowering questions about each woman’s life and aims to break prejudice around what it means to be a woman. 

The year before, they released the #PowerToChange campaign featuring 12 limited-edition T-shirts, each designed by a female designer. The profits of these were dedicated to the non-profit organisation Women for Women International

Not only that, the brand committed to donate $1 for every instance of its #PowerToChange hashtag uploaded on either TikTok or Instagram in the week of International Women’s Day. Net-a-Porter launched this hashtag campaign with a huge network of influencers, all posting content featuring exclusive items, which ensured the campaign was seen by a range of audiences online.

2. TikTok

If you’re hunting for inspiration for Women’s day post ideas, TikTok is a fertile ground of creativity to plunder. 

@tiktok_australia Catch @Melanie Bracewell’s chats with @Drew Afualo and other iconic women for #InternationalWomensDay ♬ original sound - TikTok Australia

Last year the video-sharing app chose to focus on female influencers, hosting a LIVE with six inspirational creators talking about womanhood and what it means to be strong women. To further mark #InternationalWomensDay, throughout March, they said they would also be programming content for the TikTok Discover Page, including #WomenInMusic. This is a nod to their 2021 International Women’s Day campaign on the gender disparity within the live music industry. 

In 2021 they launched a campaign with the hashtag #WeAreHere and encouraged users to explore playlists generated by female artists celebrating female talent. 

For Gen Z, who are the biggest audience on TikTok, both international women’s day campaigns presented perfect opportunities to get involved, share their talent and celebrate women’s achievements – and, perhaps most importantly, they proved to them that the social media platform they use so much cares about the same issues as they do.

3. Reebok

Women’s day ads usually focus on – you’ve guessed it – women. But Reebok’s 2020 “It’s a Man’s World” campaign subverted this expectation.

The brand released a women’s shoe range embossed with the arresting slogan for International Women’s Day. The footwear, designed by female entrepreneurs, featured the phrase boldly crossed out in a bright red, and calls attention to industries where women are still noticeably absent.

In this project, Reebok worked with MADWOMEN, an organisation dedicated to uplifting women in the creative industries. Larteyley von Hippel, Co-founder of the organisation, describes the company on Linkedin as “a collective for women that think differently.” This was the ideal partnership for Reebok on such a momentous day, and they harnessed this creative power to make a truly unique product. Naturally, the limited-edition trainers went on sale on March 8th, and they were a hit.

4. Neom

Supporting young women on International Women’s day is crucial, especially for beauty brands. Young girls are often faced with unattainable standards of beauty. You can find out more about how young people are changing body image in our article: Gen Z and Body Positivity: What Should Brands Know? Seeing a skincare brand support women in the right way is memorable. That’s exactly what Neom did last year

For International Women’s day 2023, Neom released their sleep kit filled with slumber-promoting goodies. For every one of these kits sold, the wellness and lifestyle brand donated £5 to the Prince’s Trust. They supported the #changeagirlslife campaign from the charity by sharing this hashtag and helping young women in need worldwide. So with every sale, it really is women supporting women.

5. Tena

Tackling “taboo” subjects is what #breakthebias was all about. The Menopause is still unfortunately not talked about enough – and the menopause bias especially. In the UK there are nearly 5.1 million working women aged 45-59, most of whom will experience menopausal symptoms that affect many areas of their lives.

But this also affects younger people, too. This award-winning ad campaign by Tena aimed to change the narrative, by tackling intergenerational conversations about the menopause.

The frank and funny new campaign focuses on the relationship between a daughter and her mother as she navigates the menopause. It lifts the lid on subjects rarely discussed on TV, and sets a great example for how to approach new or awkward subjects in an accessible way, helping to eliminate unconscious biases that are harder to discuss.

6. JD Sports

It’s no secret that young people trust influencers. In fact, 62% of social media users trust influencers more than celebrities. So why partner with them for International Women’s day?

@joannachimonides #ad Celebrating international women’s day with my faves @jdofficial @adidas 💕 how cute did it all look!🥺 #CallingAllJdWomen ♬ Coming for You - SwitchOTR

IWD social media posts can sometimes come across as meaningless. Young people especially understand when a brand is just doing something for show, so you need to make sure your content is authentic and real. Working with well-chosen influencers, who stand for messages that align with International Women’s Day causes, is a great way to ensure your campaign is honest and meaningful, and JD Sports knows this. 

The sports brand teamed up with Adidas in 2022 to create an event for International Women’s Day. They shared their brand-new YouTube series ‘Make it Make Sense’ live in front of an all-female audience at the event. The episode covered all kinds of women’s issues, such as overcoming and negotiating gender stereotypes, and what brands can do to build young girlsself esteem. Before the event, the invited influencers created their own content to share, and this boosted the brand’s organic reach to targeted audiences.

7. Casetify

Another brand who chose to launch a product in order to raise awareness of social issues was Casetify. The brand launched its ‘Her Impact Matters’ collection of phone cases, with a percentage of each purchase donated to Equality Now – a charity fighting to secure equal rights under law

Every design in this capsule collection is designed by a female illustrator or artist. Each limited edition design’s message was clear, helping customers demonstrate their support for gender equality.

Partnering with female artists and creators is a great way to build engagement and access new audience pools whilst promoting equity.

8. Netflix

If you’re looking for ideas for pure celebration, sometimes you should look at your past endeavours as a brand. Celebrating women within your company or women who have inspired you in some way is a brilliant way of celebrating International Women’s Day. That’s what Netflix did. 

@netflix

celebrating these incredible characters today and every day ❤️

♬ original sound - Netflix

Netflix has had their fair share of female leads. So why not celebrate that? They posted a TikTok with some of their best leading ladies in their shows to acknowledge the day. 

They also created a new collection of dramas called “The Story of She” with art created by Twisha Patni. Featuring themes like Women Making History, Kickass Women, Women Who Make Us Laugh and Movies Directed by Women, this collection ran through March 2022.

9. Sweaty Betty

Educating your viewers on International Women’s Day is crucial. But doing it in a way that is interesting and within your niche is the tricky part. Sweaty Betty did this well through an educational TikTok video on sports bras.

@sweatybetty This #IWD2022 we’re honouring our most supportive partner-in-sweat: the sports bra. @daniellefriedmanwrites #iamasweatybetty #internationalwomensday ♬ original sound - Sweaty Betty

Danielle Friedman, author of “Let’s get physical”, talks about five different facts about the sports bra. This includes its history, invention and, of course, benefits, educating potential customers on why they may need one. 

It feels informational yet fun, the perfect combo for sparking attention on a day full of facts on women and equality.

10. Papier

Choosing to focus their International Women’s Day 2021 campaign on the importance of mental health, Papier released a limited-edition “self-reflection” journal in collaboration with Adwoa Aboah, founder of Gurls Talk.

In Papier’s words, both the notebook and Gurls Talk provide a “space for free expression without judgement”, helping tackle issues such as self-esteem and self-consciousness. 

The brand committed to donating 100% of the profits from purchases made in the month of March to the community space, allowing customers to help both themselves and others with every purchase.

Empowerment campaigns: getting it right

Taking a stance and highlighting brand attitudes towards social issues such as those raised on International Women’s Day is not just important, it’s essential. Customers look up to brands to set a positive example, so you need to create credible campaigns that land.

Despite a general trend towards advancement since the birth of International Women’s Day, in 2022 several global political and social issues cracked the strengthening journey of female equality.

Gender violence, reproductive rights contention, not to mention the Taliban taking away women’s rights to learn in Afghanistan and escalating violence in Iran amidst protests for women’s rights — the need and desire for International Women’s Day campaigns to inspire meaningful action and actually help women is as strong as ever.

Taking action to help responsibly, where possible, is vital. Brands can and should focus their attention on moving the dial in relevant ways and areas to support women.

Younger audiences will especially be keeping an eye out for brand messaging around this time. The percentage of consumers who expect their favourite brands to address diversity and inclusion grows significantly as you move down the generations – from 63% for Gen X, to 76% of Gen Zers. So make sure any international women’s day campaigns you create are authentic, based on your brand values and speak to your audience directly. 

If you want to know how to market your brand during IWD, we’re here to help. Whether you’re looking to create a campaign that shows how your brand intends to #embraceequity, or if you’re looking for more ways your social media presence can support women throughout the year, we’ve got you covered. Get in touch to find out how we can create watertight strategies for you. 


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